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The Pineapple Thief - Magnolia CD (album) cover

MAGNOLIA

The Pineapple Thief

 

Crossover Prog

3.67 | 211 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

arcane-beautiful
3 stars I won't lie. The Pineapple Thief aren't a band I have been really keeping an eye on. The only album I actually have of theirs is "Tightly Unwound"...and I thought it was alright. But, last year Bruce Soord (lead singer of the the band) collaborated with Katatonia vocalist Jonas Renkse to make "Wisdom Of Crowds," and impressive album packed with tunes, especially the amazing and beautifully arranged "Frozen North." Did Soord get lucky with "Wisdom Of Crowds"? Well...maybe. To be honest I think Soord knows the bands sound and doesn't want to straw too far away from it, allowing Wisdom Of Crowds to be his experimental side project.

Musically the band are very much stuck in the art rock stages of the 90s and always have been for their career. In many ways the band are pretty much a rip off of 90's band Mansun. But, if I was to describe the band, the perfect description would be the middle ground between Death Cab For Cutie & Porcupine Tree. One change that the band have done for this album is the loss of longer compositions (with the longest composition being just over 5 minutes). I am sad to see the loss of an epic on this album, because I think it's on longer compositions where this band really shine and show off their ability, but this album does show a slight focus on songwriting, so really there's good and bad moments throughout.

Bruce Soord is a pretty great vocalist and songwriter and the band do play the material with a good sense of musical knowledge. One of the problems I have with the band is that their material while impressively put together can lack a lot of cohesion. I really don't think any songs on this album will really stick with me. Not that the songs are bad or anything, just my own personal tastes maybe. I do really like the album cover though.

Album opener "Simple As That" is a pretty great way to start off. With a lot of interesting changes throughout and some pretty cool riffs, the song really opens up the album well introducing the bands sound.

One of my personal favorite tracks on the album would have to be "Breathe." One of the more rockier songs on the album, the song is really pushed forward with a pretty great chorus.

"Sense Of Fear" starts off becoming almost like an epic track for the band with a pretty tense intro. The song builds up and kind of ends which is a bit of a shame because this could have been a rather interesting track.

An interesting track on the album would be "A Loneliness." Starting off very slow and quiet the song then soon explodes with some interesting crescendos. A beautiful vocal performance from Bruce as well.

Album closer "Bond" is a pretty great ender to the album. Having some brilliant climatic moments and having a great trumpet solo, the song ends the album off on a good light.

Overall, this album is pretty good. I won't lie, The Pineapple Thief aren't 100% my thing but I did enjoy this album. It is business as usual for the band, but Soord is a good songwriter and there are some nice moments on it. I have heard a lot of bands who sound like this, but when your songs are pretty good, I won't throw too much metaphorical faeces on you.

6.8/10

Genres: Progressive Rock, New Prog, Art Rock, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock

Country of origin: England

Year of release: 2014

arcane-beautiful | 3/5 |

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